Everybody says so, which must mean it’s true… Social proof is the phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation. Understanding exactly how this works is invaluable to marketers because it can influence behaviours and drive business. The question is; how can your business benefit from social proof?
Social proof, also known as informational social influence, can be seen in the tendency of large groups to conform to choices either correct or mistaken and is sometimes referred to as herd behaviour.
How does social proof work?
Robert Cialdini, Regents’ Professor of Psychology and Marketing, Arizona State University and a team of colleagues ran an experiment to see which types of signs would most encourage Arizona hotel visitors to reuse towels. They tested four types of signs:
- Cited environmental reasons to encourage visitors to reuse their towels
- Said the hotel would donate a portion of end-of-year laundry savings to an environmental cause
- Said the hotel had already given a donation and asked: “Will you please join us?”
- Said the majority of guests reused their towels at least once during their stay
They discovered the percentage of those who reused towels per request was:
- 38%
- 36%
- 46%
- 48%
When guests found out that most people who stayed in the same hotel reused their towels, they were more likely to comply with the request.
“What’s most interesting to me,” Cialdini says, “is that the most effective strategy was entirely costless to the hotel. But I’ve never seen it used by any hotel room in any city.”
How to Build your Social Proof
There are numerous methods to build social proof, and every business must discover what works best for them. And of course, you need to have a great product or service for people to recommend. Get your product in front of the right influencers, and make it easy for people to share their opinions and recommendations through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, solicit testimonials from happy customers on sites like Customer Lobby and reviews at local search directories like:
- Google Places;
- Yahoo Local;
- Yelp;
- Merchant Circle, and
- CitySearch
Don’t forget niche review sites. For example; hotels really value great reviews on sites like:
- Expedia;
- Trip Advisor, and
- Travelocity.
The flip side of social proof is that negative reviews can do a lot of damage to your brand and business, especially if you don’t address them quickly and properly. Your customers are going to hold you to account, so monitor your social media, local search and review sites and respond promptly.
As long as you are selling a great product or service you will garner great ROI from your social media and review sites as your social proof builds with positive input from your best marketers…your customers!
